I think this qualifies as one of the most unusual stories of service in WWII. A member of the 506 PIR, 101rst Airborne who ended up fighting with the Russians in the final months of the war. When I first saw this title I was skeptical, but it was written by another 101rst alum who served in Vietnam, and he lists plenty of familiar names for sources such as Mark Bando. I'm still on the first chapter, but can tell already.. it's going to be a great story. I am probably a johnny-come-lately on this book too, but wanted to mention it to fellow book lovers here who might also enjoy it. Available used or new on Amazon.com, starting at about 12 bucks.

Dogdaddy

Sounds interesting!!

Hope all is well with you and Molly.

Brooke

Good..at least I'm not the only one who didn't know about Joe Beyrle. I did a Google search on him and discovered that he received four medals from Boris Yeltzen and was invited to attend the 59th Victory Anniversary celebration in Moscow. He was the first man to parachute into Normandy before D-Day. Like so many others, his WWII efforts were not known to the public until 50 years had passed, and would never have been acknowledged in The Soviet Union until Yeltzen's watch and Peristroika

DD

ps- Hello Brooke! Molly is thriving on all the attention she is receiving. I recently picked up a book with recipes for Dog Treats, but I'm sure they are not as good as the ones you made for her!

I just finished this book and would like to recommend it highly to all here who are interested in books. Talk about a unique war experience...this man had one for certain! Joe Beyrle was captured several times by the Germans and escaped both times. I have forgotten the number of wounds...some by bullets and others by the sheer cruelty of the Gestapo during his imprisonment...none of which caused Beyrle to even consider getting out of the fight. He was finally rescued when the Soviet Army liberated the Stalag he had been imprisoned in, and when told he would be returned to the West, told the Russian Tank Commander (a woman) that he wanted to fight with them the rest of the way to Berlin. I don't want to tell too much of the story, so I will stop here on Joe's story and mention an interresting fact I learned about WWII from the book: In Spring of '45 Stalin used Allied POWS as 'hostages,' saying that if Ike wanted the liberated Allied POWS back he would have to return to the Soviets all of Vlasov's men who had surrendered in the West, which I'm sure doesn't come as any surprise to any of us. At the time, Stalin was considered the lesser of two evils compared to Hitler, but the jury is still out on which one caused more Russian deaths (probably Uncle Joe)!

This is a book that had no dull moments and that is the highest recommendation I can give for a non-fiction!

Dogdaddy

Thx for the info I will order the book, for the moment my bed lecture is "Beyond Band of Brothers: The War Memoirs of Major Dick Winters" quite interesting book.

Martin